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Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Summer Green

The landscape of Wales is renowned for being green, and this summer it is exceptionally so. The beautiful warm sunshine, punctuated with the odd couple of days' rain, has resulted in a lush panorama in our valley. Our garden has also sprung into life. The rhubarb has shot up like a triffid, and the mass of apple blossom we enjoyed in Spring has morphed into a large crop of steadily growing fruit.

I never used to particularly like rhubarb, as I found it stringy when stewed. I had a light bulb moment and pureed it in the food processor - now I can't get enough of it! Which is just as well, as it keeps on growing no matter how fast I harvest it. I made an excellent rhubarb and tangerine chutney too.

I wore a 1970s' sleeveless cotton shirt dress for a day around the house. It's my third 'Carnegie of London' dress, I also own a neon maxi dress and a red and white cotton dress. I still can't find out much about the brand, except that the company was based on Osborn Street, Aldgate, London, and closed in 1984.

Please excuse the shabby garden wall in the the background. The wall is missing its top 'coping' stones and the winter rain has ruined my paintwork! Getting the wall topped properly is one of the many jobs on my list for this summer. We neglected the garden last year, and we have some hard work ahead to put that right. I forgot to prune the roses, so we have had hardly any flowers on them. Luckily there are also quite a few plants that you can leave well alone - like the peonies - and they burst into amazing flowers anyway! My kind of gardening.

Above: Spirea?

Above: Cosmos

Above: this thermoset mid-century bracelet used to be a necklace - I altered it after the necklace lost quite a few of its petals.

I've been hearing that Wales was the hottest place in the UK at one point. Probably because we weren't there ;-) Love the blooms in your garden, and do not worry about the shabby wall, as ours is much worse! I'm totally in love with the dress you're wearing! xxx